Gulf Coast News

QP, Exxon to Build $10B LNG Plant in Texas

Exxon Mobil and Qatar Petroleum announced a final decision to finance a $10 billion-plus project to export liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the Texas Gulf Coast.Construction of the Golden Pass LNG export project located in Sabine Pass will begin in the first quarter of 2019 and the facility is expected to start up in 2024, said a press release.“Golden Pass will provide an increased, reliable, long-term supply of liquefied natural gas to global gas markets, stimulate local growth and create thousands of jobs…

Offshore Terminal Plan Slowed by U.S. Shutdown

The U.S. government shutdown has delayed Enterprise Products Partners LP's plan to build a major U.S. crude export terminal off Houston, blocking the pipeline operator from filing paperwork with U.S. regulators, an executive said on Wednesday.Enterprise plans to file a 10,000-page permit application with the U.S. Maritime Administration and the U.S. Coast Guard as soon as the U.S. government reopens. It takes about a year for regulators to process an application for a deep-water terminal."Tell me when the government opens and I'll tell you when it happens…

First U.S. Crude Cargoes Head to China Since Trade Breakthrough

Three cargoes of U.S. crude are heading to China from the U.S. Gulf Coast, trade sources said on Monday, the first departures since late September and a 90-day pause in the two countries' trade war that began last month.The vessels left Galveston, Texas, last month and are scheduled to arrive at Chinese ports between late January and early March, according to shipbrokers and vessel tracking data. The shipments mark a change since Chinese buyers largely began avoiding U.S. oil during the trade dispute that flared last summer."It looks like China has resumed purchasing U.S.

US Oil Export Boom Sparks Battle to Build Texas Ports

Booming U.S. oil exports have set off a scramble to build Gulf Coast ports to handle more than 3 million barrels per day in new supplies expected over the next five years.Of seven proposed oil-export projects, nowhere is the opportunity greater or the competition more fierce than in Corpus Christi, Texas, where three firms are vying to open the state's first deepwater port.Commodities trader Trafigura has taken an early lead with a planned offshore facility that has an easier…

Moda Midstream Loads First Supertanker at South Texas Terminal

Moda Midstream LLC, owner of a U.S. Gulf Coast crude export terminal, on Thursday began partially loading the first supertanker at its Ingleside, Texas, facility, the company said.The Houston-based operator, which purchased the facility from Occidental Petroleum Corp. in August, recently installed equipment capable of loading up to 80,000 barrels of crude oil per hour onto Very Large Crude Carriers, or VLCCs, which carry up to 2 million barrels.At a depth of 47 feet, the waterway near the terminal is deep enough to allow the company to load only 1.2 million barrels onto supertankers.

Argus Adds New Marine Fuel Price Assessments

Oil price reporting agency Argus has launched five new price assessments for low-sulphur marine fuels, ahead of new global rules capping the amount of sulphur in marine fuels, also known as bunkers.International Maritime Organization (IMO) regulations will cut the limit for sulphur in bunker fuels globally from 3.5 percent to 0.5 percent from the start of 2020."Argus is pleased to be taking the lead in bringing price transparency that enables this large and emerging oil market to advance trading in preparation for the IMO 2020 required fuels…

Hamburg Süd Begins Seasonal Service for Mangos and Grapes

German shipping company Hamburg Süd is resuming its weekly direct service from Peru’s Port of Paita to Philadelphia just in time for the forthcoming mango and grape season in South America.The international logistics service provider said in a press release that with a transit time of eleven days, the service provides exporters in Peru and US importers a premium product designed specifically with these sensitive cargoes in mind.The release quoted Frank Smet, Chief Commercial Officer…

Cheniere to Commission 1st Corpus Christi LNG Cargo

Cheniere Energy will commission the first liquefied natural gas (LNG) cargo from its new Corpus Christi export terminal on Nov. 15, the Texas port's chief executive said on Tuesday.The commissioning of the cargo, months ahead of schedule, will mark the start of operations at Cheniere's second LNG export facility and only the third major export facility in the United States.The Corpus Christi terminal had been undergoing commissioning work since the summer and while it was scheduled to come onstream in the first half of next year…

Tellurian to Start Building LNG Export Plant in 2019

U.S. liquefied natural gas company Tellurian Inc said on Wednesday it expects to start construction on its Driftwood LNG export terminal in Louisiana in the first half of 2019 and begin operations in 2023.Chief Executive Meg Gentle said in the company's third-quarter earnings that Tellurian will announce partners in the $27.5 billion project by the end of 2018.Driftwood is one of dozens LNG export projects under development in the United States seeking customers so they can start construction and enter service over the next decade to meet growing global demand for the fuel.U.S.

US Energy Exports to China Plummet

It's probably not the kind of success U.S. President Donald Trump had in mind, but his trade dispute with China has effectively killed off the burgeoning energy trade between the world's two biggest economies.China's imports of U.S. crude oil, liquefied natural gas (LNG) and coal have slowed to a trickle amid the escalating tit-for-tat tariff war.Perhaps the irony of the collapse in China's energy imports from the United States was that this was the area most likely to deliver…

NRF: Retail Imports Slowing but Remain Strong For Now

Imports at the nation’s major retail container ports have slowed down from their pre-holiday peak but remain at unusually high levels as retailers continue bringing in merchandise before tariffs increase in January, according to the monthly Global Port Tracker report released today by the National Retail Federation and Hackett Associates.“Imports have usually dropped off significantly by this time of year but we’re still seeing numbers that could have set records in the past,” NRF Vice President for Supply Chain and Customs Policy Jonathan Gold said.

U.S. Pipeline Operators Reap Hefty Profits from Bottlenecks in Texas

Some of the biggest pipeline operators in the United States have supercharged earnings this year by buying deeply discounted shale in West Texas oilfields and selling it at a premium at Gulf Coast ports.These companies are taking advantage of extraordinary markdowns in West Texas where surging production and a lack of pipeline space sent the regional price for oil in late August $23 per barrel below the coastal price in Houston.Record profits illustrate the divide between the haves - those with guaranteed pipeline space - and the have nots, producers that must sell oil at the wellhead.

BBC Chartering Joins Seaboard to Create “Andino Service”

As part of their mission to improve services for shippers moving cargo between the US Gulf Coast, Jamaica, and ports in Ecuador, Peru and Chile, Seaboard Marine and BBC Chartering are pleased to announce a new strategic cooperation which will be marketed as “Andino Service.”A press release from the international shipping company based in Leer, Germany said that beginning as early as November 2018, BBC and the ocean transportation service provider in North America Seaboard Marine…

Magellan Bids to Build U.S. GoM Oil Export Terminal

Magellan Midstream Partners LP on Thursday became the latest company to join a crowded group looking to build an oil export terminal on the U.S. Gulf Coast designed to load supertankers.U.S. oil exports are expanding rapidly, but volumes are constrained because the country's shores have limited capability to load giant vessels that can carry about 2 million barrels of crude oil.Numerous companies - including private equity firm Carlyle Group and commodities merchant Trafigura…

Gulfport’s Long Road Back From Hurricane Katrina

When Jonathan Daniels, executive director of the Mississippi State Port Authority at Gulfport spoke to the audience at the annual state of the port luncheon July 27, 2018 at the newly rebuilt Island View Casino, he had a lot to offer in terms of jobs. And he had two aces in the hole: SeaOne, an untested compressed liquefied gas company and Yilport, a terminal company operated by an ambitious Turkish port developer. Both had letters of intent dating back two years with much to do.As has been the case since before Daniels took over from Don Allee in 2013…

Bahri Highlights Growing US Presence

Highlighting its growing presence in the U.S., global logistics and transportation company Bahri, represented by its Bahri Logistics business unit, participated at Breakbulk Americas 2018 exhibition for the project cargo and breakbulk industry, held October 2-4 in Houston.The three-day event attracted a number of visitors and exhibitors, including specialized ocean carriers, freight forwarders, ports and terminals, logistics providers, export packers, and road, rail, barge and air transportation companies, among many others.

Hurricane Michael Races Northeast, Leaving Devastation in Florida

Hurricane Michael, the third most powerful storm ever to strike the U.S. mainland, headed northeast on Thursday, weakened but still set to soak Georgia and the Carolinas after devastating the Florida Panhandle.By 6 AM on Thursday, heavy rain and wind had reached as far north as Charlotte, North Carolina and the Western North Carolina mountains. The center of the storm was located over Augusta, Georgia, moving north rapidly at more than 20 MPH in a north / northeast heading. Charlotte…

Roll Group Awarded Contract for Shipment of Three Boilers

Roll Group has been awarded a contract by Fagioli and Macchi for the transportation of three large boilers for the Gulf Coast Growth Ventures project. Presently the voyage from Porto Marghera (Italy) to Corpus Christi (USA) is scheduled to take place between August and September 2019. Each of the three boilers weigh in excess of 1000 metric tons.The dimensions of the boilers to be transported in 2019 are all identical with a length of 30.30m, a width of 16.40m and a height of 22.70m.

Port Manatee, Carver Maritime Ink Long-term Terminal Deal

Port Manatee and Carver Maritime LLC have entered a long-term marine terminal operating agreement for a 10-acre aggregate offloading facility at the Florida Gulf Coast port.The agreement, for as many as 20 years including options, was approved Thursday by the Manatee County Port Authority and ensures property lease payments totaling $1.8 million for the initial five-year term, in addition to wharfage payments for annual cargo throughputs.Carver Laraway, president of Altamont,…

Mississippi River Ship Channel Deepening Project Moves Forward

The Mississippi River Ship Channel could be the first port complex on the Gulf Coast to reach a depth of 50 feet now that the Director’s Report has been signed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Elected officials and industry leaders have long worked to increase the channel’s depth to 50 feet, which is the same depth of the expanded Panama Canal.In signing the Report, Corps of Engineers Director of Civil Works James C. Dalton stated the project is “economically justified and…

Chevron Eyes Houston Ship Channel for 2nd US Gulf Refinery

Chevron Corp wants to build or buy a refinery along the U.S. Gulf Coast to process crude oil from its rapidly growing Permian Basin operations, a senior executive said on Tuesday.The company would like to have refining operations on the Houston Ship Channel, in the western part of the U.S. Gulf, to complement an existing eastern Gulf refinery in Mississippi that makes lubricants and other materials, Pierre Breber, Chevron's head of downstream and chemicals, said."Something on the ship channel side could make a lot of sense for our company…

Four LNG Carriers Transit Panama Canal in One Day

The transit of four liquefied natural gas (LNG) carriers through the Panama Canal’s Neopanamax Locks in a single day marks a new milestone for the canal and reinforces its capacity to handle growing demand from the U.S., where several new LNG export terminals are scheduled to begin operating.On Monday, the vessels Ribera del Duero Knutsen with a cargo capacity of 173,000 m3 and Maran Gas Pericles with cargo capacity of 174,000 m3 transited northbound, while Torben Spirit with a cargo capacity of 174…

U.S. Gulf Coast Ports Being Inspected After Storm Gordon

Energy companies and port operators along the U.S. Gulf Coast were taking steps on Wednesday to resume operations after Tropical Storm Gordon shut 9 percent of the region's oil and gas output.Coast Guard inspectors were flying over ports in Mississippi and Alabama to inspect the facilities, which remained closed to most traffic, Petty Officer 3rd Class Alexandria Preston said. In New Orleans, pilots have begun moving cargo ships through mouth of Mississippi River after storm, a spokesman said.Reporting by Gary McWilliams

US Oil Exports to Asia May Slide Further

Rising shipping rates have increased the costs of shipping oil from the United States to Asia and may further the restrict the flow of U.S. oil to the region later this year, multiple trade and shipping sources said on Thursday.Freight rates for tankers that carry crude oil have soared globally, buoyed by peak seasonal demand, weather disruptions and higher bunker fuel costs, the sources said.The cost of chartering a Very Large Crude Carrier (VLCC) capable of carrying 2 million barrels of crude from the U.S.

Port of New Orleans Handles Largest Containership to Date

The Port of New Orleans (Port NOLA) welcomed its largest containership ever when the CMA CGM operated Pusan C, a 9,500 twenty-foot-equivalent unit (TEU) vessel, called on October 8 at the Napoleon Avenue Container Terminal operated by Ports America.“The deployment of larger vessels highlights our strong growth in container volumes and the success of the PEX 3 service connecting America’s heartland to global markets like Asia,” said Brandy D. Christian, Port of New Orleans President and CEO.

UAE Bunker Inquiries Spike on Worries over Singapore Tainted Fuels

Inquiries for marine fuel supplies in the United Arab Emirates' (UAE) Fujairah oil hub have spiked as shippers try to avoid loading tainted fuel oil that has clogged and damaged ship engines in Singapore recently, three trade sources said.Tainted marine fuel has been found in Singapore, the world's largest ship refuelling hub, following reports of more than 100 vessels that loaded similarly contaminated fuel in the U.S.